The Girl Next Door
by Rumour of an Alchemist
Summary: Tracy Eagle lives next door to the Snape family, and is best-friends with their son, Severus.  Then a redhead comes on the scene and he gets a letter from that 'Hogwarts' place...  Alternate Universe.  Some canon characters will diverge from canon.
1. Introduction: Before Summer 1971

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, in which Severus Snape, whilst growing up in the Spinner's End district, has a girl his own age living next door to him, who he is friends with. This impacts his character, and some of his interactions with others. The narrative is from the point of view of Tracy Eagle, that girl who lives next door to the Snapes...

* * *

><p>Tracy Eagle, the dark-haired, brown-eyed daughter of the feminist professor, Angela Eagle, lived next door to the Snape family. The two families were unlike one another in many ways. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Snape were married and argued a lot; Tracy's mum was single, and so didn't have anyone to argue with. The Snapes had a boy, Severus; Angela had a girl, Tracy. The Snapes were poor; Angela and her daughter, if not exactly rolling in it, certainly weren't short of a penny or two to rub together thanks to Angela's best-selling line of books and occasional celebrity lectures.<p>

And then of course, there was the magic. Mrs. Snape was a witch, and Severus was in theory a wizard in training. Neither Tracy nor her mum could defy the laws of physics.

Angela had once found out about the magic, after a particularly loud argument from next door. Then the men with pointed wooden sticks had come and made her forget she had ever discovered it.

Tracy had been lucky enough to be out in the garden next door with Severus when that had happened. The men with the wooden sticks (wands, Severus had called the sticks, although they weren't black and white, like proper magic wands) had ignored Tracy, assuming she was part of the Snape family and allowed to know about magic.

'Ministry obliviators', Severus had called the men with sticks who made Tracy's mum forget that magic existed and that she lived next door to a magical family.

Tracy was very careful not to say anything about Eileen and Severus Snape being magic after that, in case the obliviators came for her.

But despite their differences, Tracy and Severus had grown up next to one another and were best friends. Well, until that redhead came on the scene, and Severus decided he wanted to spend a lot more time looking at her. After that, Tracy and Severus were just good friends.

Tracy hoped that some day Severus would get bored of the redhead (whose name was Lily Evans) and come back to being her best friend, but then Severus found out that the Evans girl was magic, too, and Tracy's hopes were dashed. She had to resign herself to being there for Severus for when he and Lily had argued (which happened seldom) or when he and Lily's sister, Petunia, had argued (which happened a lot more often, and resulted in Lily not being allowed to speak to Severus for nearly a month on one occasion). Tracy and Severus muddled along, until one day there came the catastrophe of the Hogwarts letters.

"I'm going to be going away to school in Scotland, next school year." Severus told her one morning. "To a place where they'll train me to be a great wizard."

"Oh." said Tracy. "Well you'll write to me, won't you? And to," she shuddered, "Lily too?"

"I'll write to you, yes." Severus said. "But I won't need to write to Lily, because she's going too."

"I thought you said she's not from a proper wizarding family." Tracy fumbled for the words, a nasty sinking sensation filling her stomach. "I thought you said she's… muddleborn?"

"Muggleborn." Severus corrected her. "But she's clever and very magical, so they've invited her anyway."

Life wasn't fair thought Tracy.

But she was a brave girl, so she didn't do more than perhaps blink away just a couple of tears, that she wouldn't be seeing Severus for ages and ages at a time, but that Lily girl would be there with him.

* * *

><p>Author Notes:<p>

Just a basic introductory section. Whilst book 6 of canon paints the Spinner's End district as pretty run down and dilapidated, with Severus Snape practically the only person still living in the area, this is set in the seventies, and I have taken the liberty of assuming there are still people living in the area.

As far as I know, I have not based Tracy or Angela on any actual living people.


	2. Summer 1971 to Summer 1974

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, in which Severus Snape, whilst growing up in the Spinner's End district, has a girl his own age living next door to him, who he is friends with. This impacts his character, and some of his interactions with others. The narrative is from the point of view of Tracy Eagle, that girl who lives next door to the Snapes...

* * *

><p>Severus' letters during his first year away at Hogwarts were infrequent and often didn't make much sense to Tracy. Severus had to leave out or only hint at all traces of magic, in case anyone was checking the post for breeches of some international statute, and apparently he was reliant upon getting other students to go to some place called 'Hogsmeade' to get post to a normal postbox for delivery.<p>

He described a gang of bullies who called themselves 'The Marauders' who were in another house who seemed to take especial delight in picking on him and starting fights. They were led by the sons of a couple of rich aristocratic families, and Severus reckoned they were picking on him because he was one of the poorest pupils in his house (which had some sort of long-term rivalry with the house the bullies had ended up in).

Severus reported that despite the efforts by the bullies to mess with his studies, or to put him in the school's infirmary, he was still doing really well in his classes.

Tracy wrote back to him what she could, telling him about what was on television, and how she was doing at the local comprehensive school (where she was top in science classes and maths, which made her mum proud) and about other local events.

And then, at last the school-year was over and Severus was back, and oh joy, Tracy discovered he wanted to spend practically the entire summer in her company. He had been particularly interested by the few mentions she had made of chemistry lessons, and wanted her to come around to his house, as much as possible, to talk about them. He seemed to think it might be useful for his potions classes.

The only cloud on Tracy's horizon was that Lily popped around, occasionally, to see what Severus was upto, although she didn't seem to have any understanding for chemistry or what he was trying to do at all.

Tracy privately concluded that although Lily might be talented with magic and with potion-brewing (and she had to grit her teeth or bite her lip every time Severus went off into yet another paean of praise about how good Lily was at those things), which were arguably practical subjects that required physical skills, Lily didn't have any kind of brains at all.

And then the all-too brief summer was over, and Severus was heading back to Hogwarts for another year.

Tracy knew that in addition to his regular books, Severus had been carrying out household chores to earn himself enough pocket-money from his father to buy a chemistry textbook which was going back with him too.

Tracy had told him, the last time she saw him, that he should just 'ignore those Marauder bullies and concentrate on his classes', earning her an uncomfortable look from Lily who had been also present at the time. Tracy had discovered that apparently the Marauders were in the same house as Lily, which didn't surprise her much – from Severus' derogatory descriptions of the majority of the Gryffindors he had encountered (Severus insisted Lily was different) it sounded to be the house where all the tosspots who gave themselves airs and graces ended up. Whether or not Severus was correct in believing Lily 'wasn't like the rest of them', Tracy suspected Lily was at least in denial over just how badly her housemates were treating Severus.

* * *

><p>Severus' letters to Tracy during his second year got increasingly terse. The Marauders were giving him an increasingly hard time, although his tactic of simply ignoring them appeared to be annoying the cretins far more than his attempts to fight back during the first year had done. Apparently they had difficulty coping with a victim who was treating them as if they didn't exist. They <em>craved<em> attention.

He requested, since some of his Slytherin housemates were intercepting and reading his mail, if Tracy could please confine herself to descriptions of science classes – particularly of chemistry ones – in her letters back to him. These were of sufficient interest to his housemates to ensure that letters would speedily reach Severus, even if intercepted, so that discussions could occur of what she outlined.

Apparently, Professor Slughorn (who was Severus' potions teacher, if Tracy recalled correctly) was fascinated by muggle chemistry, too.

Occasionally letters back from Severus contained questions which Tracy either had to look up or ask _her_ chemistry teachers at school about. In late November, Severus requested several copies of the periodic table of elements for distribution amongst his housemates and a couple of the teachers, as he reported that the one in his textbook had caused quite a stir, as it appeared to be related to a similar concept in alchemy. Tracy spent a weekend making photocopies, parcelled them up, and sent them back to Severus in response.

At Easter, a rather unexpected request came back from Severus for some genealogical information regarding a mid-fourteenth century aristocratic French family, which Tracy had to enlist her mother's assistance to find. It entailed a trip to London, to check several records offices. Tracy explained to her mum it was for a history project of her friend. Fortunately, her mum was in the midst of writing a devastating critique of the French ruling classes of that period, otherwise Tracy would have been right out of luck. They found out some information, which Tracy wrote out and posted back to Severus, who sent a brief note and small box of chocolates back as thanks. They chocolates looked a _bit_ strange but tasted pretty good, Tracy and her mum had to agree.

Tracy's mum knew Severus was attending a boarding school in Scotland, but didn't know just how unusual it was. Tracy kept that to herself, in case those obliviators appeared again.

* * *

><p>"What was that about the family trees?" Tracy asked Severus, the first day he was back over the summer.<p>

"Just a little unfriendly discussion with Potter and Black." he smirked. "Those were some of their mutual ancestors, which they had been inclined to boast about, and what you dug up silenced them for the remainder of the school year. They'll recover over the summer, I expect, and be twice as obnoxious as before, but it was blissful to have a couple of months of peace where they were too embarrassed to do much more than turn up for classes."

Potter and Black were the ringleaders of the Marauders gang, Tracy recalled. Whatever it was Tracy had found out which discommoded them quite so much, it had apparently left Lily out of sorts too, as she avoided Severus for the first couple of weeks of the holidays, and then she and the Evans family were away for the next couple.

Severus set up a small workshop in a shed in his back garden in the meantime, where he engaged in a mixture of potion brewing and chemistry, which he invited Tracy to assist with. Tracy was useless for the critical phases of potion brewing, she quickly discovered, as her not being magical meant the processes didn't work properly, but on the chemistry side she was exceptionally useful to Severus.

He had a couple of spells which managed to replicate the effects of burners and fume-cupboards, but getting any kind of water supply was beyond his magic at present, which was a nuisance.

"We really could do with a condenser." Severus fretted as they hit another roadblock in whatever it was which he was researching. "But we need cold running water for that."

Tracy borrowed a garden hose from her home, but it didn't function terribly well with the improvised glasswork that Severus transfigured.

And then, of course, towards the end of the holiday, Lily arrived, spoiling everything, poking her nose in, asking questions, and understanding even less of what Severus was trying to do than Tracy herself did, Tracy suspected.

With Lily interfering, there were several explosions, over a period of a few days, and Severus' mum shut down the project for what was left of the holiday.

Tracy overheard part of an argument between Lily and Severus at one point when the pair thought they were on their own.

"…with that muggle girl." Lily said in a bossy tone of voice.

"Oh really? As far as I can see, my options are branch out in this direction – for which _Tracy_ is particularly useful – or else dabble in the dark arts, on which subject you have already delivered me _several_ lectures on the growing tendency of some of my friends to engage with them." Severus responded. "One or the other of these is essential for my maintaining any kind of standing in Slytherin and having any hope of being a voice of moderation."

"Well maybe you shouldn't try to be a voice of anything, Sev. Maybe you should just have friends and get on with enjoying school."

"_Your_ housemates, the Marauders, make it exceedingly difficult for me to have any kind of friends unless there's an obvious benefit for doing it to those involved. It's well known that associating with me for anyone other than a Gryffindor means the Marauders will do their best to make life living hell for those involved, and I dare say the Marauders will look to start picking on any Gryffindors – even including you, Lily – if they see such people associating with me too much. I'm a Slytherin, and one with some of the best marks in the year. The Marauders see it as their ambition – as their _mission_ virtually – to try and bring me down by any and all means necessary…"

Tracy tiptoed away and left them to their arguing. Some of the time she didn't understand why they even talked to one another.

* * *

><p>Severus, returning to school for his third year, had started taking a course in something called 'arithmancy', and suddenly became desperately interested in anything he could pick Tracy's brain for regarding maths. Apparently they didn't even teach basic algebra at Hogwarts, or simple logarithmic tables.<p>

Tracy inwardly sighed at this further evidence that wizards apparently lived in a very different world to the rest of the human race, and photocopied and sent Severus some stuff based on her first and second year maths notes, and also some logarithmic tables.

He sent back a letter with multiple explanation marks 'I do not understand even half of this! Will be back home for Christmas for detailed instruction!' which left Tracy stunned.

Severus hadn't shown any sign of wanting to spend Christmas at home the past couple of years – he generally couldn't stand being under the same roof as his parents and whatever they were currently fighting over. If he wanted to be back home for Christmas this year, either things were improving between his parents (although the evidence which occasionally emerged through a window, or in terms of a slammed front door would appear to contradict that theory) or else he thought maths was _really_ important.

Tracy started to ready herself, checking with her mum if they could invite at least Severus over for Christmas dinner, and buying Severus a slide-rule as a Christmas present. She was sure, once he mastered how to use one, he would find it incredibly useful.

* * *

><p>The formality of Christmas dinner was somewhat strained. Tracy's mum insisted that having Severus around meant having his parents around too. Severus' parents spent most of it glaring at one another, in some sort of mutual hostility, silence only preserved by the fact that they were out visiting someone else, but then suddenly, during the pudding course they inexplicably loosened up and dissolved into mutual laughter at some joke private to themselves, and spent the rest of the meal on relatively amiable terms with one another. Then, at some point during the Queen's speech broadcast after the meal, Severus' dad said something which did not go down well with his wife, and silent hostilities resumed.<p>

Tracy could only figure that this volatile relationship had been going on like this for years, with periods of what was all-but warfare interspersed with sudden and mysterious truces where they could barely restrain themselves in public from grabbing one another and snogging.

No wonder Severus wanted to spend as little time around them as possible. They were absolutely crackers. It would have driven Tracy up the wall not knowing whether her mum was going to be angry or all lovey-dovey from moment to moment.

Once Christmas Day and Boxing Day were dealt with, Tracy could get on with the serious business of explaining some of the mysteries of maths to Severus. He listened attentively, scribbling copious notes, and experimenting with the slide-rule she had bought him. Lily Evans briefly cast a pall over the holiday when _she_ came around with a note thanking Severus for whatever he had purchased her (he had bought Tracy and her mum more chocolates) and Lily and Severus squabbled briefly over something she said about something one of her housemates had purchased her. Having seen Severus' parents, up close, the squabbling of Severus with Lily was starting to worry Tracy more than it had previously. Severus' parents lived with one another, despite frequent rows, so were these arguments between Severus and Lily a sign that Severus might end up following his father's footsteps when it came to a relationship? Tracy desperately hoped not…

Anyway, the Christmas holidays were then gone, and Severus was back to Hogwarts, slide-rule packed in pride of place in his trunk.

* * *

><p>News continued to arrive for Tracy by letter from Hogwarts, on what was now usually weekly basis, with Severus occasionally posing a maths or chemistry question for Tracy to research an answer for, until there came a sudden and alarming silence at the end of April, which extended through into May.<p>

It got to the point where Tracy went round next door to knock on the door, to be met by Severus' father, Tobias.

"Is Severus okay? It's been several weeks since he last wrote to me."

"He was attacked by a gang of hooligans." Tobias Snape scowled. "Called themselves 'Marauders' or something like that. They put him in the school infirmary. Near half-killed him." He muttered something under his breath which sounded to Tracy like a promise that Severus wouldn't be going back to '_that_ bloody school, come September'.

"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know." Tracy apologised, and feeling a hollow in the pit of her stomach. She was vaguely aware that witches and wizards had faster means of getting things around the country than the postal service, and that Severus' mum, being a witch, might be presumed to have access to such methods. "If I get him a card and a get-well present, could you send it on to him, please?"

"Probably." Mr. Snape grunted, unbending slightly. "I'll have to speak to the wife about it."

* * *

><p>Upon returning home for the summer, Severus was initially <em>very<em> bitter about whatever had happened to him. He didn't go into specifics, but said to Tracy on one occasion: "That's what I get for trying to pursue a nobler path with cretins like Black around. I should have gone for the dark arts instead. Might have been able to fight them, then."

Tracy knew he half-heartedly tried to argue with his father about his choice of school in the first week of the holidays, but Tobias Snape retaliated that: 'The maniac who did _that_ to you, son, is still at the school, showing that the headmaster at the least has lost his marbles, and I _refuse_ to let my only son go back to an institution with him in charge, school for magic or not'.

Lily came around to see Severus and give him sympathy, which Tracy considered he was far _too_ grateful for, given that it was some of her housemates who'd done whatever it was that they'd done, but Tracy didn't Lily's presence on this occasion _too_ much; Severus was being pulled out of Hogwarts and coming to join her at her school, which meant he had several years of study to catch up with. Even before the next school year started he was going to be spending a _lot_ of time reading and doing exercises with Tracy, and Lily had so far demonstrated only strictly limited patience for non-magical subjects.

* * *

><p>Author Notes:<p>

Whilst it's clear in canon that Severus Snape's parents _argue_ a lot, I didn't want to go down the route of their having an outright abusive relationship with malicious abuse by one party of the other, so for the purposes of this story I have taken the liberty of imagining this to be a 'fighting a lot and crazily making up' relationship. Tracy's impressions of Hogwarts are based on what Severus writes to her or tells her about the place. She considers him an absolutely reliable source on anything which does _not_ involve Lily Evans (where she considers his judgement to be impaired). Yes Tracy fancies Severus. He's polite, and funny and brainy, and she'd love him to bits if she had half a chance and he was interested, whether he had magic or not.

Note that Tracy's influence means Severus has been trying to study alchemy (instead of the dark arts) and that he employed an ultimately unsuccessful strategy of trying _not_ to fight back against the Marauders (which just encouraged them to escalate their violence to try and provoke a reaction).

Yes Tobias Snape _did_ just pull Severus out of Hogwarts as a result. It's established in canon that Tobias doesn't like magic very much anyway, and since the school's run by a maniac who lets gangs like the Marauders run wild, Severus would clearly be much better off in Tobias' view at the local comprehensive. Tobias put up with Severus going to Hogwarts for three years, but he's put his foot down now, and Eileen can hardly claim it's 'safe' given the Marauders put Severus in the infirmary. (Basically, Eileen felt she had to cave in to her husband on the pull-Severus-out-of-Hogwarts-issue, given the circumstances.)


	3. Summer 1974 to Summer 1975

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, in which Severus Snape, whilst growing up in the Spinner's End district, has a girl his own age living next door to him, who he is friends with. This impacts his character, and some of his interactions with others. The narrative is from the point of view of Tracy Eagle, that girl who lives next door to the Snapes...

* * *

><p>Once the next school year began, although it took him up to the middle of November to fully find his feet, Severus was flipping brilliant and soon up to speed with the requirements of normal education in the comprehensive system. He disliked physical education, and found religious education rather more amusing than informative, but he could cope with, or even excelled in, all other topics. His favourite subjects were chemistry – Tracy sometimes saw him staring wistfully around the labs and knew he was imagining himself back at Hogwarts in a potions classroom – and to both their surprises, metalwork. Millimetre perfect, precision-work apparently appealed to him, and the roaring blue gas flames for heating metal to soften it or to drip solder seemed to fascinate him. There was also the opportunity for violent physical exertion, thumping away at something on an anvil, which Tracy knew Severus occasionally used as a means of his releasing his frustration at the change of direction which had been forced on him by the gang of Gryffindor bullies.<p>

He was socially a bit awkward, probably because he knew he was so much cleverer than most of the other pupils and got annoyed at having to 'talk down' to their levels some of the time. The fact that he was starting from at least three years of secondary education from behind them gave him a bit more willingness to associate and discuss things with them than if he'd moved into a different school of magic, Tracy suspected, but even so, she was far and away his most solid and probably only significant friend.

* * *

><p>There was a school quiz at the end of November. Tracy and Severus and Tracy's mum and Severus' dad formed a team and went along for the evening. With three geniuses (even if one of them was a wizard, still getting to know the non-magical world) and one sports nut (Severus' dad was a mine of endless information on the subject) they left the other teams trailing, and won by a clear margin of thirty seven points.<p>

* * *

><p>Despite the way Severus was doing his best to integrate with the non-magical world, throughout the term he frequently wrote to Lily or his former Slytherin housemates, asking them questions about potions and charms. Tracy had a feeling he wrote to them with questions more often than he had written to her from Hogwarts, but she tried to tell herself that that was because he could quickly and conveniently 'owl' them (she was by now familiar with that form of wizardly communication), whereas he had been obliged to rely upon the vagaries and slow deliveries of the Royal Mail for his correspondence with her.<p>

* * *

><p>Over the Christmas holidays, Severus started corresponding with goblins, in London, and he told Tracy he was exploring the possibilities of studying the creation of enchanted metalwork with them, over the coming summer. Apparently, if he took such a course, he would be travelling by something called 'floo' on a daily basis, which was some network of magical fireplaces.<p>

Lily arrived back at her home from Hogwarts for Christmas and, Tracy thought, unfairly monopolised Severus' time. She'd been writing to him almost every other day, after all. Tracy overheard part of one conversation where the redhead was making disparaging remarks about 'that silly Eagle girl who's not one of _our kind_' which ended rather abruptly when she knocked on the door of the backroom in the Snape house where they were chatting, and enquired if it was okay to come in?

Tracy wasn't sure what Severus got the redhead for Christmas, but apparently it prompted a half a dozen page missive, immediately 'owled' over after she opened it and prompted squeals of rapture and hugging rather too vigorous for Tracy's liking when the two of them next met. (Severus had got Tracy and her mum the usual chocolates, and they had supplied him with the latest winter coat and scarf, as he couldn't use his magic to keep warm in the non-magical world.) Apparently Lily had got Severus some book on Professor Slughorn's recommendation which seemed to please him.

* * *

><p>The Christmas holidays were over mercifully fast, and it was soon time for Lily to go back to Hogwarts. Severus considered going to the station to wave her off, but didn't want to have to put up with the Marauders, who would almost certainly be there too, and no doubt fuller of themselves than ever. It was the one bright spot for Tracy that Lily apparently still didn't see them as the menaces for which they were, and although Lily thought that they had treated Severus 'very unfairly' she seemed to think they were okay around everyone else. What few arguments Severus and Lily had these days tended to be about the Marauders.<p>

And then, with school underway again, in both the magical and normal worlds, Tracy started to enjoy another period completely free of Lily, bar the odd letter every few days.

* * *

><p>One morning in late April, on the way to school, Tracy found Severus arriving white-faced at their bus-stop, and she knew something had happened again.<p>

"What is it?" she asked.

"Those bloody Marauders." he said. "Angus wrote to me overnight. One of the Marauders, it turns out, is a werewolf and has been ever since first year, and last night he tried to kill Angus and Malcolm."

Angus Avery and Malcolm Mulciber were two of Severus' Slytherin friends, Tracy knew. Between the two of them, they corresponded with him almost a much as Lily, and Severus often mentioned such of their doings as he though appropriate for Tracy's listening.

"Are they okay?" Tracy asked.

"Barely." Severus snorted. "Angus got a few scrapes, but Malcolm's half-dead in the hospital wing. They were coping with the werewolf, just fine, but then Black – annoyed that his werewolf friend was getting the worst of the fight – drew his wand and started hexing them. Fortunately a Ravenclaw prefect arrived on the scene just in time."

Tracy mentally debated whether to say 'see, your dad is right not to want you at that dangerous school', but decided Severus would not appreciate any sentiment like that in his current mood.

"Well, when you owl back with get-well wishes, you can include them from me too, if you like." she settled on instead.

"Ah." A smile touched Severus' lips. "Angus and Malcolm are not generally fond of people who are not wizards, so I may have to be diplomatic about that, if I do…"

"Hey, at least I'm not a werewolf." Tracy said, and threw back her head and mock-howled. "I'm sure that right now werewolves are even _lower_ on their 'not generally fond' list."

"Ah. There might be some way to gracefully frame it making reference to that." Severus' smiled broadened.

* * *

><p>Severus kept Tracy abreast of developments in the werewolf incident. It was clear from the scowl he had every time he had an update that the developments did not please him.<p>

"So let me see if I have this straight?" Tracy said at the bus-stop on the way to school a week later. "Sirius Black and Remus Lupin attacked your friends, but your friends are the ones who are getting expelled, for protecting themselves, because the headmaster wants to hang on to his job and keep his pet Gryffindors in school, so naturally everything has to be blamed on your friends?"

"You have a perfect grasp of the situation." Severus said.

"But that's outrageous." Tracy said, making it clear just how much she felt that was the case with her tone of voice. "Honestly, Sev, I think you're _much_ better off not at that school. You can study what you want in your own time, and I bet your friends can lend you any books you need. Who cares about their supposed facilities if the place is being run like that?"

And she hugged him, fiercely.

"Uhhh. That's for your friends." she said, noticing how much he'd coloured. "Umm, give them my best wishes. I suppose they'll have to find new schools now or something."

It was interesting to see how the colour only very slowly faded from his cheeks, though, and Tracy thought he looked as if he'd enjoyed her hug, very much.

Then the bus arrived.

* * *

><p>Eventually the summer holidays and the return of Hogwarts students and of one annoying redhead in particular rolled along. Tracy wasn't actually round at the Snape house when the major row between Severus and Lily happened, but she was there the next morning in the aftermath of the verbal explosion.<p>

"Lily will _not_ be coming around here any more, nor will I be going to see her." Severus said to Tracy, his face taut. "She is a devoted Dumbledore-lover, who believes anything he says, more interested in fitting in with her housemates than little things like truth or justice."

"You talked about the werewolf incident, then?"

"We talked at first. She grew more and more vocal, and was practically yelling by the time that I asked her to kindly leave." Severus said. "She thinks Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew, are saints beyond any kind of reproach, because Dumbledore said so, and that Angus and Malcolm 'got what they had coming' and are evil wizards as bad as all the dark lords of the past five centuries all rolled up into one another. She thinks a werewolf who tried to tear two pupils to shreds, and the 'friend' who helped set him on those pupils, are as pure as the driven snow, and she feels _sorry_ for the werewolf because now everyone knows the monster that he is, and that he tried to kill two other pupils. She insists that it was all a trick by Angus and Malcolm to get Lupin into trouble, because that is what Dumbledore and the Marauders say. I have said that I no longer wish to associate with her, will not read any letters which she writes, and will not write anything to _her_ unless and until she can manage to occasionally _question_ what her fellow Gryffindors and the headmaster tell her, instead of simply swallowing it whole, every time."

"Will you be able to keep up with your studies without her correspondence?" Tracy asked. She was _happy_ that Severus had finally parted company from Lily, but didn't want his already difficult position with regard to magical studies, to suffer further because of it. She knew he was hoping to be able to take at least some OWL exams next year, in magical subjects, as well as O-Levels in his normal studies.

"I don't know." Severus shook his head slowly. "I am still in correspondence with a good many friends at Hogwarts, who can write intelligently and convey useful information, but none of them were quite so adept at charms or potions as Lily was. I may be able to correspond occasionally with Professor Slughorn, my old head of house about potions. I should have perhaps done that from the start, but I did not want to unduly impose upon his kindness. I do not know if Professor Flitwick, the charms professor, would have the time for me, although he _was_ interested in some of the possible applications of muggle mathematics to arithmancy and charms before I left. If I mention to him calculus as well, if he did not know of it already… It is _possible_ he may be willing to correspond."

He drew several deep breaths and seemed to calm a little.

"The situation is not completely without hope." he concluded. "Though a complete break with her is certainly a loss."

Tracy _hoped_ he meant that purely in an academic sense, and didn't have any kind of other lingering feelings for Lily.

* * *

><p>Author Notes:<p>

For the purposes of this story, since, as of the time of writing, I am not aware of any other first names for 'Avery' and 'Mulciber', I have respectively designated them 'Angus' and 'Malcolm'.

Angus and Malcolm, note, were in a pair (and possibly less restrained in using violent stuff than Severus might have been) so when Sirius Black lured them into his 'werewolf trap' they were able to cope with Remus Lupin, until Sirius got upset things had gone wrong on him. (James Potter, for whatever reasons, didn't bother to attempt to intervene and try to 'save' Angus and Malcolm's lives.)

Being good Slytherin students, and somewhat less lone-wolves than canon Severus, Angus and Malcolm had probably arranged the handy Ravenclaw prefect who saved them from Sirius Black to come by in case they got in over their heads.

Note that Angus and Malcolm are expelled, likely as retribution from Dumbledore for 'talking' about the incident. Canon Severus remains silent and is tolerated by Dumbledore at Hogwarts. Whilst their careers at Hogwarts are the only immediate educational casualties of this alternate universe's version of the werewolf incident, further ramifications may play out in the following instalment of this story.

Obviously Lily and Severus have had a big bust-up a year earlier than canon in this alternate universe. Tracy certainly _hopes_ it's going to be permanent.


	4. Summer 1975 to Summer 1976

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, in which Severus Snape, whilst growing up in the Spinner's End district, has a girl his own age living next door to him, who he is friends with. This impacts his character, and some of his interactions with others. The narrative is from the point of view of Tracy Eagle, that girl who lives next door to the Snapes...

Reminder: In this story, 'Angus' is 'Angus Avery', and 'Malcolm' is 'Malcolm Mulciber'.

Further Reminder: This is an Alternate Universe! Canon characters may deviate from canon behaviour.

* * *

><p>Tracy didn't really see much of Severus over the summer holidays, since he was travelling to London on a practically daily basis by those magic fireplaces to study with the goblins. Whatever goblins were, they apparently didn't help his disposition, as when she did get to see him he tended to be exhausted and monosyllabic at best. The distraction of the goblins also meant that he was deferring the consequences of his bust-up with Lily. Towards the end of the holidays, when he finally finished his studies with the goblins, severe Lily withdrawal symptoms set in, and he spent several days just lying in bed at home, moping. Severus' parents found a new topic to argue about – what the best way to deal with Severus' melancholy state was?<p>

Tracy considered that with regard to this whole Lily business it was good-riddance, and that if the breakup had affected Severus like this _now_ it was just as well it had happened when it did, rather than before he had had the chance to become even more mistakenly attached to her. Another six months and it might have driven him permanently crazy.

* * *

><p>School recommenced, and with the new school year came a new teacher, Mr. Rhys Davies, who started a school debating society. Tracy wasn't that keen on formal arguments but it was apparently just the tonic that Severus needed to shake him out of his Lily blues. He went along and engaged in discussion of such an eclectic mix of topics as the importance of football, the coal industry, and whether the common market was a good thing? She went along to a debate just before Christmas which she knew he had been doing a lot of preparation for, and saw him speak for ten minutes on the abuses and tyranny of those with power – for which he got a standing ovation. The topic was Nelson Mandela, but Tracy knew that the oppressive regime in South Africa wasn't the only one in his thoughts. She blinked away a few tears at the end of his speech.<p>

"That was beautiful Sev." she told him after the debate was over. "Just beautiful."

He glowed with pride.

* * *

><p>Two things occurred over Christmas, of which Tracy took note. The first was that Lily tried to send Severus a present, and Tracy knew that he sent it back, unopened. Tracy didn't doubt that the stuck-up little Gryffindor deserved that, but she knew it would feel almost unbearably cruel, had she been in her position.<p>

The second was that Tracy received a Christmas card with a mysterious note in it:

_My dear. You stand on the edge of great tragedy, and do not see it coming. I have some respect for your mother and her work, and I know a little of who you are and what you do. I am unavoidably busy up until the next summer solstice, but write to me any time after then, if you feel the need, care of our overseas address:_

And there was an address given, in France.

It was signed 'Perenelle Flamel', and Tracy had no idea who she was. She checked with her mum, but her mum had no idea who Perenelle was either.

Tracy filed the card somewhere, and forgot about it.

* * *

><p>The new year brought escalating tensions between the United Kingdom and Iceland in the Cod Wars on the international stage and the first commercial flight of a 'concorde' supersonic airliner. It also brought mock-exams to Tracy and Severus' school, in which Severus did fairly well, but Tracy did too – in fact she came top of the year in chemistry, and third in maths.<p>

"Who says girls can't 'get' science?" Tracy's mum was delighted, and produced a bottle of champagne from somewhere.

The Hogwarts news Severus was continuing to receive from his old housemates in Slytherin was interesting these days. The headmaster had apparently not quite judged the mood correctly the previous summer, and a fair number of pupils across the usual house divides had been muttering mutinously in corners ever since about why _only_ Angus and Malcolm had been expelled? At least two Gryffindors were known to have been involved in the incident too and – though stringent surveillance of Lupin by the aurors (the magical police) during nights of the full moon now took place – were still there. Gryffindor house generally and its head were being ostracised by the rest of the school - the Marauders especially so. When a Gryffindor quidditch team took to the pitch for one house-cup match (Tracy gathered that quidditch was some sort of wizarding sport) whose squad members included several of the Marauders, they were booed by practically every spectator from the other three houses.

Several of Severus' friends had written enquiring as to what position Severus had regarding Lily Evans, having heard by now rumours of the breakdown of their friendship.

Severus had replied to them: 'As far as I am currently concerned, she does not exist.'

Tracy knew that some of these friends were checking if it was okay to go after Lily? Previously they had left her well alone, on account of her being known to be an acquaintance of Sev's. Severus had, however, just effectively declared open-season on her.

Okay, that did give Tracy _some_ qualms. She was happy Lily wasn't his friend any more, but the thought of what some of his friends might do to her now did make her feel slightly uneasy. She _tried_ to tell herself Lily deserved to be treated just the same as everyone else, by them, but the problem was that whilst she was sure that none of Severus' friends were as bad as the Marauders (one of whom was a werewolf, for god's sake) she still had some slight concerns about how rough they might play.

* * *

><p>Severus received intelligence from Hogwarts, at the start of April, that Lily was 'up to something', apparently secluding herself in the library for long periods, and shamelessly badgering teachers for passes to access rare books. Severus developed a theory that she might be spending as much time as her prefect duties allowed in the library under the watchful eyes of the Hogwarts librarian to hide from some of his friends. Whatever she was doing these days didn't bother Tracy, not least since she was apparently staying on at Hogwarts over Easter.<p>

Tracy and Severus _should_ have probably been revising non-stop for their impending O-Levels, over the Easter holidays, but they took a break to go to the cinema and see _All the President's Men_. Severus seemed to enjoy it at least as much as Tracy and commented on how much a particular politician reminded him of a particular wizardly headmaster.

* * *

><p>The summer term arrived and the actual O-Levels themselves came and went, and Tracy was confident she'd done pretty well. At the end-of-exams disco, besides the winning entry from this year's Eurovision song contest, music from some Swedish band who had just released a 'greatest hits' album pumped out, and there were flashing lights and lots of cider. Tracy and Severus snogged, and things got a bit hazy towards the end of the warm and sticky night, and Tracy couldn't exactly remember the next morning what had happened at the very end of the disco, or how she'd gotten home. She just hoped that wasn't anything to do with the statute of secrecy, or Ministry obliviators.<p>

Her mum seemed amused, as Tracy stumbled around the kitchen looking for an aspirin and something to wash it down, that her sixteen year old daughter had just had her first post-party hangover.

* * *

><p>Several weeks later, with the Cod War ended but the country in the throes of a heat wave and the worst drought in recent history, school concluded – Hogwarts included – and Lily came home. The late-night discussion which took place next-door at the Snape house between Severus and Lily on Lily's first night back was not one to which Tracy was privy, but the next morning when she went around she found the front-door opened in response to her knock by an incredibly smug looking Lily Evans.<p>

"Oh, it's you." Lily said, a perfect cat-which-got-the-cream expression on her face. "Come in. Sev was just telling me about some of the amusing things you've been doing this past school year."

Tracy went in, gripped by a sudden horrible sensation of impending doom.

"Sev. Will you be coming out with me to the cinema, tonight?" Tracy asked.

"I can't." Severus said. "Lily's been working minor miracles, and I have a couple of years of magical studies to catch up on."

"Someone," said Lily, clearly enjoying herself, "at great personal risk put an ancient Greek curse on the Marauders. Had they been completely innocent, it would have had no effect upon them. As it was… well let's just say it looks like three of them are going to be spending at least a year out of school, and the headmaster has made a public statement admitting he seems to have made 'some basic mistakes due to overwork' and left on a sabbatical of indefinite duration, having handed over to the deputy."

"Lily teamed up with Professor Slughorn to fix up some remedial classes for me at Hogwarts over the summer." Severus said, his eyes shining.

"That's great, Severus." Tracy struggled to once more sit back into the role of quiet, supportive, friend, and to put aside her shattering dreams. "You're really clever, and you work hard. You deserve it."

She had to swallow down the bitter taste of defeat. Her rival was back with a vengeance and Severus adored her more than ever.

* * *

><p>After a few more days, at least one of which was spent travelling by wizard means down to the wizard shopping district, 'Diagon Alley', in London, (which was close to where Severus had been with the goblins the previous summer if Tracy remembered right) Severus was gone.<p>

"Don't write unless there's an emergency." Severus had said to Tracy in their last, brief, conversation before he left. "I'm going to be far too busy for at least the next twelve months to have time to read anything, unless I contact you first, looking for information, but after a couple of years of muggle school, I think I know enough about the basics of science and maths to be able to work through most things from the textbooks I have. If there is an emergency, you can tell my parents, and they should be able to get word through, or if it's about them, write to me by muggle post care of Professor Flitwick who will be the stand-in deputy head or Professor Slughorn, my head of house at Hogwarts."

Suddenly, Tracy noted it was 'muggle school' and 'muggle post' when he was talking with her. He was distancing himself from the world he'd been occupying for the last two years.

"I won't bother you unless it's anything earth-shatteringly important." Tracy promised him.

He gave a thin smile.

"Lily's been able to work wonders. Oh, what the look on Potter's face – hah – when the curse first bit must have been! I do hope we can find a pensieve so she can show me… Oh, she should have been sorted into Slytherin, although that could have made life awkward for her in the first few years until she silenced the doubters with her talents. She's come through now though."

He was head over heels in love with Lily, Tracy could see – she was his shining star, his burning muse. And Tracy… well Tracy was just the girl who had lived next door to him. Nothing more. Nothing less. She could see the way the world was turning. He would head off deeper and deeper into the wizarding world with his Lily, and soon Tracy would be nothing more than a remote childhood memory to him, perhaps to be mentioned in occasional humorous anecdotes.

"Just at least send me an invitation to the wedding, when you two get married, huh?" Tracy requested. She didn't know if she'd accept such an invitation, but at least it would nice to be thought of then.

"Wedding? I think you're being a _little_ premature there." Severus said, proving that he wasn't such a genius that he was completely infallible. Tracy knew it. She was pretty sure Lily knew it too. Unless a thunderbolt struck, marriage for those two was on the cards.

"Humour me. Promise me this, right?"

"Oh alright." Severus said. "Wizard's word."

And then he was off to make some sort of last-minute arrangements.

* * *

><p>Author Notes:<p>

And that's it for this story, except for a brief epilogue. Life in Harry Potter universes (alternate or otherwise) can be cruel and horribly unfair at times...

What happened to Lily in this alternate universe that she's dabbling in borderline dark curses and applying them to the Marauders?

1) Severus dumped her. Without ever properly dating her.

2) Not only did Severus dump her, but there's the _horrible_ muggle girl who lives next door to him who gives herself all sorts of airs and no doubt thinks she's very clever when she doesn't have a drop of magical blood in her body and... basically that green-eyed monster, rabid jealousy, on Lily's part over a perceived rival.

3) Severus isn't dabbling in the dark arts in this alternate universe, but pursued (at least whilst he was able) the noble and high-minded art of alchemy. Which is incredibly sexy. Especially if one of your own speciality subjects is potions.

There are other factors, such as Gryffindor house suddenly being unpopular because of four particular students, and Lily suddenly discovering what it's like to be the target of attention of some of Severus' Slytherin associates because he's no longer on speaking terms with her, but those are fairly minor really. The Lily of this particular universe wants Severus back. She _really_ wants him back, and will go to considerable lengths to get what she wants.

Since Tracy (and Severus) were getting older and more aware of the world, I made occasional references to real world events/issues of the time in this chapter.

At the time of my writing this Wikipedia lists the release date of _All the President's Men_ as being the 6th of April 1976, so I've taken the liberty of assuming it might have been showing at a cinema near Tracy and Severus by the Easter holidays. They were both 16 by that point; if that wasn't old enough to see the film at that time, (I'm not sure what it was rated) they probably did something hopelessly teenage like lied about their ages to get in and see it.


	5. Epilogue: Summer 1976

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, in which Severus Snape, whilst growing up in the Spinner's End district, has a girl his own age living next door to him, who he is friends with. This impacts his character, and some of his interactions with others. The narrative is from the point of view of Tracy Eagle, that girl who lives next door to the Snapes...

* * *

><p>Tracy's mum was nothing if not intelligent and perceptive. She cornered her daughter in the living room of their home, the day after Severus Snape disappeared off to Hogwarts for his summer remedial classes.<p>

"Men can be such bastards." Angela Eagle observed. "He's broken your heart, hasn't he?"

"It's not his fault, mum. The Evans girl's been one of his friends for a long time. I thought he'd broken up with her permanently, but by the sound of it, she did some pretty special things for him."

"And you _haven't_ done some pretty special things for him, too?" Angela snorted. She surveyed her daughter. "I may prescribe a course of intensive shopping therapy next month, but for now I instruct the patient to sit with her mother on the settee and to indulge in a _very_ large bar of chocolate. I have just such a thing for emergency situations like this, and almost everything seems better after good quality chocolate and a decent cry."

* * *

><p>Several days after that Tracy was lying in bed one morning, sniffing and feeling generally under the weather, when <em>it<em> first happened. She wanted a tissue, to wipe her eyes and blow her nose, and – suddenly – the box of tissues shot across the room from the dressing table to land on the bed next to her hand.

She froze for a moment – and then, being practical, took a tissue and used it for the purpose for which she had wanted it. It _seemed_ to be a genuine tissue, and therefore either she had just somehow forgotten getting out of bed, fetching the box, and getting back into bed and hallucinated the box flying through the air instead or…

It was ridiculous.

After drying her eyes, Tracy slowly got out of bed, and started to look through her cupboards for notes she had taken that summer Lily had blown up the garden shed next-door several times; Tracy and Severus had got through quite a bit of work, though, before Lily barged in and did her usual spoils-everything act.

Three quarters of an hour later, Tracy was downstairs, the spirit-burner, beakers, and various other things from her home chemistry set arranged in the outhouse. Her mother, who was at the computer working on her latest book, had raised an eyebrow on seeing her daughter march out to experiment, with such a _determined_ expression on her face, but seemed relieved that she was actually doing something other than lying around, moping.

Swallowing back a slight feeling of nausea, Tracy consulted her notes, and added ingredients to the beaker on its tripod over the burner, carrying out the ridiculous seeming directions to the letter. Most of the stuff she was using were herbs from the kitchen, not regular chemicals.

She was pretty sure that the result would be the same as the dozens of times she'd tried this with Sev, and that nothing would happen.

But then, in front of her eyes, _the impossible thing started to happen, as the murky solution in the beaker began to change colour and fizz slightly_.

Tracy swore out loud and almost knocked it over. She stared, in disbelief, as the reaction completed, leaving the solution a delicate shade of pink.

She had just done something which should have been only possible with magic.

The only immediately obvious logical conclusion to draw from that made no kind of sense whatsoever.

* * *

><p>Author Notes:<p>

A couple of short scenes to wrap up. I did experiment with bringing Perenelle Flamel in as something other than foreshadowing that this was not going to be a completely happy ending, but it was too contrived and wouldn't fit in in the short time span left I wanted to cover. This story was about Tracy and Severus, and Severus has now left, so this story's over. Maybe Perenelle might feature if I write a follow-up about Tracy (and possibly her mum) without Severus...

To quote Tracy: '...The only immediately obvious logical conclusion to draw from that made no kind of sense whatsoever...' I'm reasonably certain that what I did here probably violates canon on how magic works in Harry Potter and is acquired, and so forth. There are a number of possible explanations, ranging from Tracy being a particularly late developer, to something involving what Voldemort would call 'old magic' (which is about sacrifice, and Tracy's made a pretty huge one here, letting Severus go for the sake of _his_ happiness) to something else altogether. How credible any of those might actually be... well, eh, it's magic. (And I don't intend to commit myself to nail down a specific 'official' explanation for it right now.)

Thank you to all the readers and reviewers. I was rooting for Tracy too, but alas, this one turned out not to be that kind of story.


End file.
